Because the people who choose him have prayed very hard beforehand and receive God given inspiration. I suppose if God was choosing a Pope, then He would inspire all the Cardinals to vote for the same man, so I guess that's where deep political intrigue comes in

How do you think it should be done? Just ask people if they think it's meant to be them? Wait for a thunderbolt?

The church (all churches) are a human construct, and their decisions are made by the leadership one way or another, with more or less democracy. Nobody had yet found a better way of working out who God thinks is meant to be the next leader.

Surely God in his almighty position could come up with SOME way of listing us know, don't you think? He could make it so all humans know who it is. He could mark them somehow, he could write a future list with dates for us. All these things should be well within his capability, no?

Woolly the prayer was for Pope Emeritus Benedict. Only our priest forgot!

It's a fascinating time. The voting cardinals are guided by the Holy Spirit so it is not men who choose but rather the Holy Spirit. My belief is that, as we are all individuals with our own views and affiliations, the differences come as humans try to fathom out what the guidance they receive means within the context of their own life. It's no different in that way to what Christians (and I am sure everybody else does in the context of their own beliefs/morals/guidance/ethics etc) do everyday.

My prayers are that the Holy Spirit guides the cardinals to consider what the Church needs to consider the issues of prime importance in today's world rather than getting stuck on doctrinal issues which don't further the key messages of Jesus.

Short administrations are all well and good, but when the leader is elected by a small select group of like minded individuals, that all goes out the windows as far as corruption is concerned. It also basically ignores all the progress which has been made with democracy over the last few centuries.

They could do world tours and campaign across the globe. It could just work like the USA. Each country gets a quota of votes based on population and everyone votes on the same day. It would be special awesome!